The Truant Officer
by raspberry dreams
Summary: Inspired by the story "Smarter than Spencer" by Jacinta. Spencer's even smarter than he let on and his mother was a lot more ill. Eleven year old Spencer trying to hold it all together, look after his mother and pay the bills the only way he knew how. But every now and then he needs a little help to buck the system.


The Truant officer

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of their characters. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOT give permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.

A/N: This one-shot was inspired by the story "Smarter Than Spencer" by Jacinta, who came up with the idea that as genius as he is Spencer was hiding his true intelligence in an effort to fit in a little better. "Smarter than Spencer" can be found on 'Archive of Our Own' and I encourage you to read it.

-o0o-

Leonie Bridgewater sighed discontentedly as she pulled into the parking lot at UNLV where she was reliably informed the mother and sole guardian of the current student she was chasing would be at this time of day. She had had such high hopes for life when she graduated from this very campus three years ago, intending to become a social worker and dreamed she could be a real positive influence in children's lives.

Instead, the only job she could find was as a truant officer chasing down children who's skipping school had become too frequent for even the most blasé teacher to ignore. Most of these children despised her and her job, and to her surprise many of the parents weren't interested in receiving her help either. When she followed up on her clients she was disappointed to find that improved attendance rarely resulted in improved grades or classroom behaviour.

Still, she had some hopes that this mother ought to be different. If she worked at the university she should care about education, at least enough to want her son to graduate. Unless of course she was a janitor or Worker in the cafeteria. She wasn't sure why she was even being sent after a high school senior, she never had before. They were too old to be subject to truancy laws.

"I'm looking for Diana Reid" she said to the reception desk. "I was told she works here at the university somewhere?"

The receptionist frowned a little, most people at least knew what department the person they were looking for were in.

"Her office is on the second floor of the Literature building" the receptionist said offering a map of the campus.

"Thank you" Leonie said smiling. She made her way to the building in question and quickly found the office with Dr Diana Reid's name on the door.

She knocked but there was no answer. Instead the man in the office opposite called out. "Diana hasn't been in this morning but she should be here after her eleven o'clock lecture."

"Thank you" said Leonie again, she checked the time table beside Diana's door and headed to the lecture theatre indicated. She slipped into the lecture theatre along with a couple of dozen students. Looking at her watch she saw she had a couple of minutes before the lecture began. That should be enough to find out if the woman had any idea where her son was. she made her way onto the stage.

"Are you Ms Diana Reid?" Leonie asked.

"Oh no, I'm not Professor Diana Reid, I just set up the audio-visual equipment" the lady said amused.

"I'm looking for Professor Reid, it's about her son" he said hoping that would encourage the tech to allow her to speak to the professor before the lecture."

The tech smiled. "They'll be here in a minute, you can speak to them after the lecture."

'But I don't have time to hang about waiting for the end of the lecture' Leonie thought frowning as the tech continued oblivious to her reaction. "This is a very special occasion for Professor Reid."

Leonie sighed and took a seat in the front row pulling out the paperwork she needed to complete. 'At least this won't be a complete waste of time' she thought.

The clock reached the hour and a scholarly looking man in his late sixties stepped up to the podium. "Good morning everyone. For those who don't know me I am Professor Allbright the head of the English and Literature department" he introduced himself, causing a wave of concerned murmuring to fill the lecture theatre. "Now I'm not here to replace Professor Reid today, but to proudly introduce you to the newest member of our faculty. Please join me in warmly welcoming and congratulating Doctor Spencer Reid. Dr Reid's thesis like that of all our faculty is available on our website. Dr Spencer Reid will be officially taking over many of Dr Diana Reid's classes for the remainder of the semester."

Leonie was startled by the name of the new professor being the same as the missing high school truant but dismissed it as being likely that the child was named after Dr Spencer Reid.

She was shocked when the audience leapt to their feet as one clapping and cheering as a twelve year old boy came out and stood next to Professor Allbright.

"Hello everyone" Spencer said blushing as he leaned into the microphone. "Thank you for your congratulations, and your support over the last year."

The crowd continued to clap and after a few minutes the blushing boy said awkwardly. "Time to settle down and get your pens out people, we still have a lecture to complete today"

It took a minute or two for the class to settle, then Spencer laughed nervously, straightened his tie and began his lecture.

"Today we're discussing…"

Leonie listened in shock and increasing awe as the twelve year old truant she was looking for quickly gained confidence and effectively and enthusiastically taught an advanced class on fifteenth century romantic literature. She jotted down a note to herself to look up and read his thesis.

Her attention was also caught by the blonde woman sitting rocking on the floor at the front of the auditorium. Everyone ignored her presence so she was clearly a regular occurrence.

The lecture finished and many of the students crowded around Spencer congratulating him on successfully defending his doctorate. Leonie waited for them all to leave and saw him walk off the stage and approach the strange woman helping her to her feet before she approached him.

"Dr Reid, my name is Leonie Bridgewater and I'm a truancy officer for the Las Vegas public school system. Las Vegas High sent me your name as a regular truant who is in danger of failing your year through lack of attendance." She introduced herself, wondering how the school had got things so mixed up.

"My son is here with me" the woman said.

"Mom it's okay" Spencer said soothingly. "She's right I should be at school today."

"Isn't it summer?" the woman Leonie now realised had to be Dr Diana Reid asked confusedly.

"No Mom it's November" Spencer replied gently.

"Then why didn't you go to school today Spencer, that isn't like you. You love school" Diana scolded her son.

From the grimace Spencer gave, he clearly didn't love school and Leonie could picture why. The senior class wouldn't take well to having a twelve year old genius making them feel mediocre. Not to mention she knew from talking to other truants that Las Vegas High had a problem with bullies that wasn't being well managed by the school staff, particularly among the senior class.

"Is my mother going to be charged for not sending me to school Ma'am?" Spencer asked cringing.

"I have no intention to charge her at this time, but if you remain enrolled then Las Vegas High will probably petition to have her charged. It is only a misdemeanour but I can understand why you would wish to avoid it" Leonie replied, trying to be reassuring but firm.

Spencer sighed, "I'll try harder to be at school more. Maybe if I explained to the Dean, he could schedule most of my lectures for the evening though that will no doubt make my classes less popular."

Leonie laughed. "Well you've clearly exceeded the education that Las Vegas High School can offer you. You could consider removing yourself from their enrolment, that would solve the problem of you being declared a truant" Leonie suggested.

"The law states I must attend school until finishing 12th Grade or turning Seventeen unless the courts grant me an exemption. I probably have grounds for the exemption but I couldn't put my mother through a court hearing at this time" Spencer said glancing worriedly at his mother. "I'm due to finish 12th grade at the end of this school year."

"And will you become a full-time professor as soon as you graduate?" Leonie asked.

"No, Umm… I got in to Caltech. It's my dream school but I need to graduate to go" Spencer replied blushing a little.

"You already have a doctorate. Can't you just transfer colleges?" Leonie asked.

"But if I don't graduate high school then I never actually qualified to go to college so my degree isn't legitimate. I got away with it here because I've been doing summer classes while Mom worked for years" Spencer explained.

"Well let's go and talk to your school guidance counsellor to see what classes you need to attend and what classes you can be credited, surely your class attendance at UNLV will count towards your attendance" Leonie said optimistically.

"But I'm not actually attending classes here anymore" Spencer replied. "Though I would prefer to audit some classes here than go back to school, it's too late in the semester to enrol.

Leonie quickly set up a meeting with his school principle eight am the next morning. "I'll see you and your parents then Dr Reid. Eight am sharp" she said.

"You can call me Spencer. It's just me and Mom and I don't know if she'll be able to make it" Spencer said anxiously.

"Do your best to have her there, Spencer" Leonie said looking at him seriously. "They won't meet with you without a parent or guardian present."

"Thank you Ms Bridgewater" Spencer said softly.

"Don't thank me yet" Leonie said. "I don't know what the school will agree to until they decide."

-o0o-

Leonie spent that night reading Dr Spencer Reid's PhD thesis and had to admit she was impressed with the depth of understanding he had for his subject. She printed out a copy to give to the headmaster if she could get Spencer's permission to do so. She had also asked the Dean to print a copy of Spencer's college transcripts and was astonished to find he'd begun enrolling in undergraduate classes at the age of seven, and had more than one undergraduate degree in addition to his PhD.

She dressed carefully next morning wanting to present as mature and efficient an image of herself as possible for the meeting and arrived at the school early sitting in her car with the widow open so she could hear what was being said as she kept an eye out for Spencer.

Leonie breathed a sigh of relief as she saw both of the Doctors Reid approaching. Dr Diana Reid looked well put together, professional and calm. Spencer on the other hand looked nervous, his entire body language said 'kick me'. Leonie's heart went out to him but she needed to instil some confidence into him before they met with the principal or there was no way she could convince the school to credit Spencer for the classes he took at UNLV.

"Spencer" Leonie called him away from his mother for a moment. "Now we're going to speak with your guidance counsellor and the principal to see how many attendance credits you can get for you time at UNLV, perhaps by auditing the appropriate level class in each subject. But to succeed in this you've got to be the Dr Reid I saw lecturing yesterday, not this frightened bullied kid I see before me now. Can you find the confidence to do that during the meeting?"

Spencer looked at the truant officer appraisingly then decided to trust her. "It is more important to me that my mother not become too upset by this meeting than whether I get exempted from class. If she does I'll stop pushing for credits and just try to come back to class more" he said earnestly.

Leonie looked at him searchingly. It had been obvious during his lecture that Spencer's mother wasn't merely upset but seriously ill. She realised that Dr Diana Reid had been on the timetable to give the lecture that day, and that the students had accepted Spencer in his mother's place because it was a common occurrence. Spencer had been covering for his mother for some time and doing her job for her, she wondered if it was their only income and what would happen if Spencer was no longer able to teach his mother's classes.

"I'll be as gentle as I can, does your high school know your mother is ill?" Leonie asked.

"No" Spencer replied, "if they knew they'd lock her up and put me into foster care. It's only until September when I go to Caltech, then the school will put Mom on disability and my Aunt is going to come and help Mom out around the house and things."

"Okay well if you stay calm and confident that should help your mother, I'm going to refer to both of you as Dr Reid so don't be surprised by that, it should help then take you more seriously. I also printed a copy of your dissertation and your college transcript. Do I have your permission to give both of them to the principle if I think it would help?"

"Yeah okay" Spencer said blushing.

"None of that Dr Reid, there's no need to be embarrassed. It is very impressive work and should get you enough credits to get out of your English classes at least.

"To be honest it's PE that I want out of the most" Spencer confessed.

"You shouldn't be doing PE with the seniors in the first place, you could get hurt" Leonie exclaimed.

"Even with the freshman I get hurt" Spencer replied. "They're three years older and bigger than me and I'm not the most athletically co-ordinated person."

"Then you should be exempt or have a special arrangement to take lessons either privately or at the junior high with your own age group" Leonie declared.

"Ms Bridgewater, do you really have the authority to make them do that?" Spencer asked. He'd looked up truancy law but there was very little documented about the power that truant officers had to make changes for their clients.

"To be honest Spencer, I don't have the authority for any of it but we're going to march in there and act like we do and present our logical arguments" Leonie admitted. "There have been allowances made to credit college courses for advanced students in the past and there is no reason they can't do the same for you."

-o0o-

"Ms Woodbridge, may I ask why you called this meeting?" Principle Rossiter asked as they exchanged greetings.

"Spencer Reid is not your usual truant" Leonie said seriously. "And I felt that we would not be meeting his needs if we ignored his exceptional circumstances and treated him as one of the vast majority that simply does not choose to attend school."

"I am aware that Spencer is above average intelligence but mandatory attendance is mandatory" Principle Rossiter said firmly.

"Exceptions have been made in the past to allow for gifted students to gain exemptions to their mandatory attendance to allow them to attend university classes part time in their senior year" Leonie replied calmly. "Why was this never considered in this case when Spencer is clearly academically working at that level."

"Spencer Reid is an eleven year old. We simply decided that the risk was too great"

"Doctor Spencer Reid has been attending classes at UNLV for the past five years. He recently defended his doctorate in fifteenth century literature" Leonie replied. "I fail to see how allowing him to use those classes as part of his high school attendance causes any risk at all."

"Doctor Spencer Reid?" Rossiter repeated faintly.

"I have a copy of his dissertation of you would like to read it" Leonie said matter-of-factly.

The guidance counsellor who'd been silent up to that point stated that she would indeed like to read the thesis, her own college major had been in English and she recalled Dr Diana Reid's class fondly.

"Here's his college transcript also" Leonie said handing them over.

"He really attended all these classes? He can't have, his attendance here at school was fine until this semester" she protested.

"As you can see from the subject codes most of them are either evening classes or the summer semester. It's only been this semester that his TA duties have interfered with his attendance here at high school" Leonie said as if she hadn't had to have it explained to her the day before when she picked up the transcript.

"Well I have to say if he wrote this on his own then there isn't an English class on our syllabus that could teach him much" the guidance counsellor said.

"There is another subject he needs to be excused from. Dr Reid is eleven, even if you put him in the freshman PE class he gets injured because the other students are so much older than him" Leonie said. "At least some of these truancy episodes occurred because he was incapacitated during that class."

"Our policy is for all students to complete some form of physical education" Rossiter replied. "The boy gets no other form of exercise."

"Then you need to provide that for him in a safe environment" Leonie said fiercely. "If your PE teacher continues to put him into situations where he is frequently injured I would have to report him for child abuse. Many of the senior class will be eighteen soon and they could be liable if Spencer is seriously hurt as well."

In the end Leonie's arguments about the dangers of Spencer taking PE classes designed for students five years older than he was were accepted and Spencer was exempted from the practical portion if that class, his English teacher after reading his thesis also relievedly exempted him from her class allowing him to count his college classes as his attendance. His maths teachers were also glad to have him out of their classes. However his Physics Chemistry and Biology teachers refused to excuse him from their practical classes, stating that there was a lot more to science than rote learning. Spencer conceded and agreed to attend those classes and planned to meet the dean to see if his lectures could be scheduled around his more limited high school schedule so he could still graduate this year.

-o0o-

After this meeting and the changes it brought about, Spencer began to enjoy his senior year. He was able to cover for his mother's classes until she had qualified for retirement and when his Aunt finally arrived in town to assist in looking after his mother he was able to relax and anticipate becoming a child again for a short time before he left for Caltech secure in the knowledge that he had done all he could to protect their family of two. Though he never received another official visit from Ms Woodbridge, she checked up on him a couple of times a year during semester breaks from Caltech. He eventually encouraged her to reapply for the child protection position she'd originally dreamed of having, helping parents re-establish custody of their children when it was appropriate. They lost touch but he remembered her fondly as one of the people who hadn't let the system get in the way of doing their best for the individual.


End file.
